You may have heard that Alec Baldwin recently got into a fight with someone over a parking spot near his home in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The fact that this happened will no surprise anyone who has ever attempted to street park in the Village. Equally unsurprising is the fact that Alec Baldwin (60!), allegedly punched someone. But there are two surprising things here: first is that Alec Baldwin street parks his Escalade daddy mobile and the second is the type of car that the alleged victim drove.
The car belonging to the alleged victim is one of 600 Saab Turbo X SportCombi’s sold in the United States. And it looks to be in great condition despite being sometimes street parked in New York City. It even has a little Ferrari-eque moose logo on the side.
For those unfamiliar with the Turbo X SportCombi, we discussed it back in 2011:
As Saab heads up to the great parking lot in the sky to join its brethren, we take a look at what could be the final hot Saab, the 2008 Turbo X. It was first shown at the 2007 Frankfurt auto show. The car paid homage to Saab’s 30 years with the turbocharger, beginning with 900 Turbo in 1978. Outside, the Turbo X was painted in a one choice Jet Black color and wore 18’ wheels making a callback to the 900 SPG. The homage continued inside with the turbo gage in the instrument cluster being the same as the 900 Turbo.
As with the 900 Turbo, the Turbo X introduced a significant innovation for Saab; Cross-Wheel Drive. Developed by Haldex, Cross-Wheel Drive (XWD) was Saab’s first true AWD system. XWD used sensors in all four wheels to detect slippage and a multiplate wet clutch in the rear differential to send power. The Turbo X also used an active rear limited-slip differential (eLSD as Saab called it) to shuffle power between the two rear wheels. Both of them would trickle down into the 9-3 and next generation 9-5.
Power comes from a modified version of Saab’s 2.8L turbo V6 from the 9-3 Aero producing 280 HP and 295 lb-ft of torque.
Only 2000 of Turbo Xs in sedan and SportCombi form were built in 2008. 600 of those made their way to the US.
So, this is somewhat of a rare and obscure wagon with with a turbocharged engine, manual transmission, and all-wheel-drive. Alec sure knows how to pick them.
Second image from saabplanet.com. Others from dailymail.co.uk. Thanks for the tip Michael B.!
http://hooniverse.info/2011/12/21/wagon-wednesday-the-saab-turbo-x-sportcombi/
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